Ripples from Mali: events plus outside Mali

[jmm99]

The Ontos ...



Alas, there has been an Ontos Gap since 1969.

Regards

Mike

[davidbfpo]

Michael Wills gives some context in a short blog:http://www.hurstpublishers.com/islam...saharan-sahel/

The surge in international interest in the Saharan Sahel region of Africa following the French-led intervention in Mali and especially the attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria by armed Islamists has drawn attention to the links between these incidents and the conflict in Algeria in the 1990s.

As for AQIM, before Al Amenas:

nothing could disguise the fact that AQIM was a shadow of its Algerian forebears.

[KingJaja]

Interesting read from the WSJ.

As a Nigerian, I can tell you upfront that the Nigerian Army bristles at "being told what to do" by the US Army (or any Western Army). This article validates that.

Secondly, nobody in the Nigerian government wants wide swathes of the Nigerian Military to be trained by a foreign power - especially when US trained officers have a reputation for going back home and executing successful coups.

KUMBOTSO, Nigeria—The shooting clattered on for 30 minutes, residents of this dusty town say, and when it ended, four militants holding a German engineer hostage were dead.

So were the engineer, and four innocent bystanders.

In vast West Africa, a new front-line region in the battle against al Qaeda, Nigeria is America's strategic linchpin, its military one the U.S. counts on to help contain the spread of Islamic militancy. Yet Nigeria has rebuffed American attempts to train that military, whose history of shooting freely has U.S. officials concerned that soldiers here fuel the very militancy they are supposed to counter.

It is just one example of the limits to what is now American policy for policing troubled parts of the world: to rely as much as possible on local partners.

The U.S. and Nigerian authorities don't fully trust each other, limiting cooperation against the threat. And U.S. officials say they are wary of sharing highly sensitive intelligence with the Nigerian government and security services for fear it can't be safeguarded. Nigerian officials concede militants have informants within the government and security forces.

For the U.S., though, cooperation with Nigeria is unavoidable. The country is America's largest African trading partner and fifth-largest oil supplier. Some 30,000 Americans work here. Nigeria has by far the biggest army in a region where al Qaeda has kidnapped scores of Westerners, trained local militants to rig car bombs and waged war across an expanse of Mali the size of Texas. Last month, al Qaeda-linked extremists' attack on a natural-gas plant in faraway Algeria left at least 37 foreigners dead

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...155502840.html

[M-A Lagrange]

First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the 2 videos the French army released about the Malian conflict. This is interesting because it is the first images of the conflict from the French Army which has ordered a full black out on that conflict.
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/...combats_885922

Now some news. Part from the death of a 3rd French soldier, French government is very cautious about the death of 2 high targets from AQMI.

Dead Abu Zeid and Elmokhtar: Chad maintains the Drian urges cautionBelmokhtar death, which had claimed the attack site in January Algerian gas Amenas, followed by a hostage repressed by the army in Algeria, where 37 foreign and Algerian died, like Abu Zeid, was not confirmed by the French authorities, who are very discreet, or in Bamako and Algiers. "No comment" , it was said laconically Saturday at the French presidency. "We want it can be verified, it is a matter of time. were not able to confirm " , a source explained Sunday at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs .
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Defence himself Sunday called the"prudence" in an interview with the Depeche du Midi made public by his ministry, Mr. Le Drian, questioned these proclamations Chadian replies "A rumor repeated the environment is no information, and the Minister of Defence should not speak in the conditional. I call for caution and a sense of responsibility with respect to information that we are not able to confirm material at this stage " .

I also call for caution with the google translation...

[Stan]

Not that these translations are much better

French news black out

Islamist commander Abou Zeid's death in Mali 'probable'

Chadian officials claim their troops have killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar

Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange

I also call for caution with the google translation...

[davidbfpo]

A title that may jar with many here, by Patrick Smith in The Africa Report, a Paris-based monthly journal:http://www.theafricareport.com/North...you-think.html

Citing an AU official:

What are we doing 50 years after independence calling on former colonial powers to resolve our security disputes?

Earlier articles include 'Who are the exemplary armies in Africa?' and 'Why are African armies so bad?'.The later ends with:

..what most of these armed forces lack are motivation and allegiance to the mission they are entrusted with.#
.....Fighting without knowing why... 

These armies are wary of the State and the State is suspicious of them... lest they turn against them.